Modernity's media and the end of mediumship? on the aesthetic economy of transparency in Thailand

Public Culture

Volumn 12, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 457-475

  Morris, Rosalind C ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0034401286     PISSN: 08992363     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/08992363-12-2-457     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. I take the term tele-technic from Jacques Derrida's Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International, trans. Peggy Kamuf (New York: Routledge, 1994). Quesalid is the skeptical sorcerer described in Claude Levi-Strauss, "The Sorcerer and His Magic," in Structural Anthropology, trans. John Russell (New York: Doubleday, 1967), 161-80.
2. I take the term tele-technic from Jacques Derrida's Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International, trans. Peggy Kamuf (New York: Routledge, 1994). Quesalid is the skeptical sorcerer described in Claude Levi-Strauss, "The Sorcerer and His Magic," in Structural Anthropology, trans. John Russell (New York: Doubleday, 1967), 161-80.
3. Domnern Garden and Sathienpong Wannaprok, Domnern-Sathienpong Thai-English Dictionary (Bangkok: Amarin, 1994), 213.
4. Jacques Derrida discusses this notion of the encrypted orgiastic impulse and its tendency toward recurrence in The Gift of Death, trans. David Wills (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). esp. 8-9 and 20-21. I do not, however, mean to invoke the ethicized associations of "irresponsibility" that the Czech philosopher Jan Patočka mobilizes in his Christian philosophy. On the history of Buddhist modernization in Thailand, see Craig J. Reynolds, "Buddhist Cosmography in Thai History, with Special Reference to Nineteenth Century Cultural Change," Journal of Asian Studies 35, no. 2 (1976): 203-20, and "The Buddhist Monkhood in Nineteenth Century Thailand," (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1972); Stanley Tambiah, World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A Study of Buddhism and Polity against a Historical Background (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976); and Constance Wilson, "State and Society in the Reign of Mongkut, 1851-1868: Thailand on the Eve of Modernization" (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University. 1971).
5. Jacques Derrida discusses this notion of the encrypted orgiastic impulse and its tendency toward recurrence in The Gift of Death, trans. David Wills (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). esp. 8-9 and 20-21. I do not, however, mean to invoke the ethicized associations of "irresponsibility" that the Czech philosopher Jan Patočka mobilizes in his Christian philosophy. On the history of Buddhist modernization in Thailand, see Craig J. Reynolds, "Buddhist Cosmography in Thai History, with Special Reference to Nineteenth Century Cultural Change," Journal of Asian Studies 35, no. 2 (1976): 203-20, and "The Buddhist Monkhood in Nineteenth Century Thailand," (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1972); Stanley Tambiah, World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A Study of Buddhism and Polity against a Historical Background (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976); and Constance Wilson, "State and Society in the Reign of Mongkut, 1851-1868: Thailand on the Eve of Modernization" (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University. 1971).
6. Jacques Derrida discusses this notion of the encrypted orgiastic impulse and its tendency toward recurrence in The Gift of Death, trans. David Wills (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). esp. 8-9 and 20-21. I do not, however, mean to invoke the ethicized associations of "irresponsibility" that the Czech philosopher Jan Patočka mobilizes in his Christian philosophy. On the history of Buddhist modernization in Thailand, see Craig J. Reynolds, "Buddhist Cosmography in Thai History, with Special Reference to Nineteenth Century Cultural Change," Journal of Asian Studies 35, no. 2 (1976): 203-20, and "The Buddhist Monkhood in Nineteenth Century Thailand," (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1972); Stanley Tambiah, World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A Study of Buddhism and Polity against a Historical Background (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976); and Constance Wilson, "State and Society in the Reign of Mongkut, 1851-1868: Thailand on the Eve of Modernization" (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University. 1971).
7. Jacques Derrida discusses this notion of the encrypted orgiastic impulse and its tendency toward recurrence in The Gift of Death, trans. David Wills (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). esp. 8-9 and 20-21. I do not, however, mean to invoke the ethicized associations of "irresponsibility" that the Czech philosopher Jan Patočka mobilizes in his Christian philosophy. On the history of Buddhist modernization in Thailand, see Craig J. Reynolds, "Buddhist Cosmography in Thai History, with Special Reference to Nineteenth Century Cultural Change," Journal of Asian Studies 35, no. 2 (1976): 203-20, and "The Buddhist Monkhood in Nineteenth Century Thailand," (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1972); Stanley Tambiah, World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A Study of Buddhism and Polity against a Historical Background (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976); and Constance Wilson, "State and Society in the Reign of Mongkut, 1851-1868: Thailand on the Eve of Modernization" (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University. 1971).
8. Jacques Derrida discusses this notion of the encrypted orgiastic impulse and its tendency toward recurrence in The Gift of Death, trans. David Wills (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). esp. 8-9 and 20-21. I do not, however, mean to invoke the ethicized associations of "irresponsibility" that the Czech philosopher Jan Patočka mobilizes in his Christian philosophy. On the history of Buddhist modernization in Thailand, see Craig J. Reynolds, "Buddhist Cosmography in Thai History, with Special Reference to Nineteenth Century Cultural Change," Journal of Asian Studies 35, no. 2 (1976): 203-20, and "The Buddhist Monkhood in Nineteenth Century Thailand," (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1972); Stanley Tambiah, World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A Study of Buddhism and Polity against a Historical Background (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976); and Constance Wilson, "State and Society in the Reign of Mongkut, 1851-1868: Thailand on the Eve of Modernization" (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University. 1971).
9. See Katherine Bowie's excellent account of the Village Scouts and the statist efforts to counteract communism through organized forms of populist counterinsurgency: Rituals of National Loyalty: An Anthropology of the State and the Village Scout Movement in Thailand (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).
10. There are several fine treatments of nationalism during Vajiravudh's (Rama VI's) reign and in its immediate aftermath. Among them are Walter F. Vella, Chaiyo!, King Vajiravudh, and the Development of Thai Nationalism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1978); and Scot Barmé. Luang Wichit Wathakan and the Creation of a Thai Identity (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993).
11. There are several fine treatments of nationalism during Vajiravudh's (Rama VI's) reign and in its immediate aftermath. Among them are Walter F. Vella, Chaiyo!, King Vajiravudh, and the Development of Thai Nationalism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1978); and Scot Barmé. Luang Wichit Wathakan and the Creation of a Thai Identity (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993).
12. Irvine discusses the metaphor of boundary penetration, which originated in paranoid anticommunist discourses, as a "repealing image" in Northern Thai mediumship. See Walter Irvine, "The Thai-Yuan 'Madman,' and the Modernizing, Developing Thai Nation as Bounded Entities under Threat: A Study in the Replication of a Single Image" (Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1982).
13. The terms within which that discourse has been cast, namely ekkalak thai (Thai identity) and watthanatham thai (Thai culture), were coined only in the 1930s and 1940s. Excellent accounts of the discursive development of nationalism can be found in National Identity and Its Defenders: Thailand, 1939-1989, ed. Craig J. Reynolds (Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 1991). Prince Wan Waithayakon's original essay on "Thai culture" is reprinted as "Thai Culture. Lecture delivered before the Thailand Research Society [formerly the Royal Siam Society], 27 February 1944," in The Centennial of His Royal Highness Prince Wan Waithayakon Krommun Naradhop Bonsprabandh (Bangkok: Office of the National Culture Commission, 1991) (originally published in Journal of the Thailand Research Society 35, no. 2 (1944): 135-45).
14. The terms within which that discourse has been cast, namely ekkalak thai (Thai identity) and watthanatham thai (Thai culture), were coined only in the 1930s and 1940s. Excellent accounts of the discursive development of nationalism can be found in National Identity and Its Defenders: Thailand, 1939-1989, ed. Craig J. Reynolds (Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 1991). Prince Wan Waithayakon's original essay on "Thai culture" is reprinted as "Thai Culture. Lecture delivered before the Thailand Research Society [formerly the Royal Siam Society], 27 February 1944," in The Centennial of His Royal Highness Prince Wan Waithayakon Krommun Naradhop Bonsprabandh (Bangkok: Office of the National Culture Commission, 1991) (originally published in Journal of the Thailand Research Society 35, no. 2 (1944): 135-45).
15. Rosalind C. Morris, "Returning the Body without Haunting in Thailand: The Politics of Revolution as mise-en-scène," in Loss, ed. David Eng and David Kasanjian, forthcoming.
16. Twenty years ago, Walter Irvine estimated that there were about three hundred mediums practicing in Chiang Mai, an increase of about 600 percent over a period of twenty years (Irvine, "The Thai-Yuan 'Madman'"). The population continued to increase: in the early 1990s, when I asked mediums and monks to estimate the number of active practitioners, they guessed there to be between eight hundred and eleven hundred, although at roughly the same time Shigeharu Tanabe's informants led him to believe that the number is closer to five hundred. My own informal surveys at events suggested that the mediums and monks may have exaggerated their numbers and that Tanabe's more modest estimate was probably more accurate. See Shigeharu Tanabe, "The Person in Transformation: Body, Mind, and Cultural Appropriation" (Special Lecture, Sixth International Thai Studies Conference, Chiang Mai, 15 October 1996).
17. Twenty years ago, Walter Irvine estimated that there were about three hundred mediums practicing in Chiang Mai, an increase of about 600 percent over a period of twenty years (Irvine, "The Thai-Yuan 'Madman'"). The population continued to increase: in the early 1990s, when I asked mediums and monks to estimate the number of active practitioners, they guessed there to be between eight hundred and eleven hundred, although at roughly the same time Shigeharu Tanabe's informants led him to believe that the number is closer to five hundred. My own informal surveys at events suggested that the mediums and monks may have exaggerated their numbers and that Tanabe's more modest estimate was probably more accurate. See Shigeharu Tanabe, "The Person in Transformation: Body, Mind, and Cultural Appropriation" (Special Lecture, Sixth International Thai Studies Conference, Chiang Mai, 15 October 1996).
18. On the antidemocratic coup of 1976, Benedict Anderson's essay remains one of the most insightful. See "Withdrawal Symptoms: Social and Cultural Aspects of the October 6 Coup," Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 9, no. 3 (1977): 13-30. A recent memorial publication, under the title of Rao Mai Lyym Hok Tula [We Haven't Forgotten/Won't Forget October 6] (Bangkok: Committee for the Twentieth Anniversary of 6 October 1976), has begun the work of new critical and historical reflection on this event.
19. On the antidemocratic coup of 1976, Benedict Anderson's essay remains one of the most insightful. See "Withdrawal Symptoms: Social and Cultural Aspects of the October 6 Coup," Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 9, no. 3 (1977): 13-30. A recent memorial publication, under the title of Rao Mai Lyym Hok Tula [We Haven't Forgotten/Won't Forget October 6] (Bangkok: Committee for the Twentieth Anniversary of 6 October 1976), has begun the work of new critical and historical reflection on this event.
20. Ubonrat Siriyuvasak, "Radio in a Transitional Society: The Case of Thailand" (Ph.D. diss., University of Leicester, 1989), 71-72.
21. Because this was a popular address and not a formal sermon, Phra Phyom omitted a philosophical discussion of the concept of "double-dependent origination" which would have actually insisted that it is not the self-same soul that transmigrates.
22. The identity between recording and playback devices is a "discovery" of information science, particularly as formulated by Hans Magnus Enzensberger. For a discussion of this fact and its relationship to new discourse networks, see Friedrich A. Kittler, Discourse Networks 1800/1900, trans. Michael Metteer and Chris Cullens (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1990), 316.
23. Kittler, Discourse Networks, 316.
24. By automatic writing I mean that practice in which the writer seeks to merely transmit his or her unconscious thoughts and, in the process, to disavow the notion of authorial agency. The technique of automatic writing and, indeed, automatic writing's valorization of technique is perhaps most associated with surrealism, hut it marks a more general transitional moment in the history of representation. That is the moment in which the production of meaning ceases to be a function of writing, and actuality or facticity becomes the primary object of inscription.
25. This increasing performance of untranslatability takes the form of a marked discourse on translation by mediums and their attendants. Not only do mediums now remark that they speak extremely ancient and difficult dialects, hut the performative elaboration of the translation has become part of the dialogue between clients and mediums: attendants whose sole function is translation have now begun to constitute a veritable type in the community of mediumship's supporting actors.
26. Three Worlds According to King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology [translation of Thraiphum Phra Ruung], trans. Frank E. Reynolds and Mani B. Reynolds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 69-72.
27. Three Worlds According to King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology [translation of Thraiphum Phra Ruung], trans. Frank E. Reynolds and Mani B. Reynolds (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 69-72.
28. Mediums and their clients explain that spirits must return to earth because of their incomplete khammic progress: Spirits generally were princes or other people who established moral law in their societies. As such they were often, of necessity, perpetrators of violence at some point in their lives. The more violent of these beings must descend to earth to acquire the merit needed to complete their journey through the moral/cosmological universe. But even in cases where the returning spirit is a Thai Buddhist national hero like King Ramkhamhaeng, no one describes the spirit as a boddhisatta, one who surrenders khammic progress for the benefit of others.
29. David Engel, Code and Custom in a Thai Provincial Town: The Interaction of Formal and Informal Systems of Justice (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1978), 4.
30. Reynolds and Reynolds, Three Worlds, 122.
31. Walter Benjamin, "On Language as Such and on the Language of Man," in One-Way Street and Other Writings, trans. Edmund Jephcott and Kingsley Shorter (London: Verso, 1979), 122.
32. Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, trans. William Lovitt (New York: Harper and Row, 1977).
33. Several years earlier a medium had plunged my hands into such boiling oil. This medium was apparently less adept than Chuchad, for I received a rather severe scalding.
34. Thongchai Winichakul, Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994).
35. Kittler, Discourse Networks, 326.
36. Rosalind C. Morris, In the Place of Origins: Modernity and its Mediums in Northern Thailand (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000).
37. James W. Robinson, Empire of Freedom: The Amway Story and What it Means to You (Rocklin, Calif.: Prima, 1997), 129.
38. Robinson, Empire of Freedom, 120.
39. Prachuab Chaiyasan, "Foreign Ministers from Southeast Asia: Thailand," speech delivered at the Asia Society, New York, 29 September 1997.
40. Siegfried Kracauer, The Salaried Masses: Duty and Distraction in Weimar Germany, trans. Quintin Hoare (London: Verso, 1998).